our expertise

publications

For information not contained on these pages, please ask a question on the contact page

heuristika – a publishing resource

We are in the business of implementing our pre-publication expertise for your benefit. For twenty years we have been working with Desk Top Publishing software (Ventura, Framemaker, Indesign, MSPublisher) in order to help our clients create anything from books to web pages.

Our primary DTP work is in the area of books and brochures, designing to client's specifications and creating new designs to their general brief. Some of these publications are e-publications which leads to our web expertise.

We work with web pages, using PHP, CSS and HTML for the creation of individual pages to specifications within the context of the whole site, sometimes on the basis of our own templates, sometimes on the basis of a client's own requirements. We are also able to maintain sites which others have created, freeing our clients up for their own important work which their web sites make known.

Whatever publications you wish to create, we can advise about, complete or even create them to your specifications within budget and on time.

Heuristika – Electronic Publishing and project management

The revolution computers brought to printing is well known. No longer is a book or anything set by hand – sometimes there is no longer even any ink involved in publications.

Heuristika is able to use the speed of the computer to output your document, so that your publication is available on time and within budget. When everything has been prepared, a book can be sent to the printer within days. This is lightning speed when compared with setting books by hand in hot type.

Once in digital form, an author's prose and poetry can be manipulated quickly and efficiently. Proofing electronically also is possible so that there is no longer the delay of printing galleys and the timeconsuming delivery of reams of printed paper. The author and publisher review files as they will be presented to the printer. At every step, there is a 'signing off' of the copy and proof electronically.

Heuristika involves the publisher from the outset by agreeing the style of the finished pages, setting timings for drafts, and incorporating all changes in the manuscript.

Heuristika will take advantage of DTP technology and techniques for the sake of your publication in a timely manner, whether a short 8-page leaflet or an 8,000-page reference book.

Heuristika – Consultancy

Workflow

How do you put your publications together

How do you create content? The spectrum ranges from creating it page by page by yourself to outsourcing content creation – from time and effort intense to costly contracting. Money spent on content creation is what is saved when content is produced by the company itself, which knows its products and procedures. However, when the company produces its own content, time and effort is diverted from the mission of the enterprise.

What do you use to create your content? There are many computer programs to do this, but each has its own foibles and benefits, and each has an intended output. Some are better than others for specific publishing ends.

Media

Print – the usual destination for most publications. A publication ranges from one page to a multi-volume treatise, a personal letter, a leaflet, a brochure, a book, an encyclopedia.

Web – the alternative to print, and an increasingly popular output for any sort of publication. This also includes the growing ezine and ebook output.

We can help decide how the document should be produced and where it should be made available to the world.

Content Management

The saying, "Content is king!", should be a company's mantra. That content is the product for a manufacturer, and that manufacturer should present itself and its product in its publications. The publication of material should not deflect the company from its vision and mission.

Database publishing may be the means by which content might be presented. By using data already stored in databases of all sorts, it is possible to produce documentation quickly andn efficienetly, sometimes "on demand". This can be output to print or electronic media.

Automatic publishing is possible when documents are stored in a "regularised" manner. This means that no massaging of a new document needs to be done – all the work has been done on creation of the content. This could be through a database in some way, or the collation of existing documents or partial files.